Update to MTGO Yields: Wizards has given us a better interface for handling yields. Madison Mosley’s article on the update is here. Nice to see Wizards improving the interface.

I Get a Vacation: I will be on vacation next week – much of it in the desert and some on rivers. I won’t have my computer with me, so I won’t have a State of the Program for Nov. 2nd. SotP will be back in two weeks.

Magic Trivia: If you want to challenge yourself, take Mark Rosewater’s Magic Trivia Quiz. I got 17 out of 30. I did best on the questions about old sets – stuff from late last century.

Magic in the Comics: IDW Publishing, a large independent comic book producer (independent meaning not Marvel or DC) is bring out Magic based comics. The solicitations (meaning preorder notification) for the January Issue 3 of the Chandra comic is out. The cover features Tibalt standing over a downed Chandra. The info says that the issue will tie into the Ravnica Allegiances set. Interesting. Hopefully this means Tibalt is getting a boost, but if not –it’s a comic book cover. Cover art often features the villain beating the hero. The story itself may be a bit different.

The Timeline

This is a list of things we have been promised, or we just want to see coming back. Another good source for dates and times is the calendar and the weekly blog, while the best source for known bugs is the bug blog which appears sporadically on MTGO.com. Not listed, but important: Wizards offers either one or two online PTQs each weekend, with qualifiers running the three days prior to the PTQ.

Upcoming Events

Dates

Scheduled Downtimes

December 5th

Constructed Leagues End

January 16th 2019

Sealed Leagues End

January 17th 2019

Ravnica Allegiance

January 2019

Next B&R Announcement

November 26, 2018

Dominaria Redemption Ends

October 10, 2018

Core Set 2019 Redemption Ends

December 26, 2018

WotC Premier Events

Wizards has announced a number of Premier events. Everything on this list in 2018 will be streamed. No word on what sort of coverage we will see for events in 2019.

·Oct. 27–28: Grand Prix Lille

·Nov. 3–4: Grand Prix Atlanta

·Nov. 9–11: Pro Tour Guilds of Ravnica in Atlanta

·Nov. 17–18: Grand Prix Milwaukee

·Dec. 8–9: Grand Prix Liverpool

·Dec. 14–16: World Magic Cup in Barcelona, Spain

·Jan. 4: Oakland – Modern

·Jan. 11: Prague – Limited

·Jan. 25: New Jersey – Limited

·Feb. 1: Sydney – Limited

·Feb. 8: Toronto – Modern

·Feb. 15: Memphis – Standard AND Strasbourg – Limited

·Feb. 22: Cleveland – Limited

·March 1: Los Angeles – Modern

·March 15: Tampa Bay – Modern AND Bilbao - Modern

·March 22: Kyoto – Standard

·March 29: Calgary – Modern

2018 Magic Online Championship Series and other events

Complete details, including schedule, rules, and which online events qualify you for which online or paper events is here. In addition, Wizards will be offering these special formats:

·Triple Innistrad – starting October 31st.

·Cube Spotlight (details later) – starting November 7th

·Time Spiral Block – starting November 14th

·Modern Cube – starting November 21st

·[REDACTED] – starting December 5th

·Vintage Cube – starting December 19th through January 17th

·Ravnica Allegiances – starting January 17th

Magic Online Format Challenges

These are high stakes events that happen every weekend. They cost 25 Tix / 250 play points, and last a number of rounds based on participation (assume 5-8), plus a single elimination Top 8. Details, including prize payouts, are here. Start times are:

I have done some serious ranting this week, but not about Magic. I could rant about a couple companies that have done stupid things and got themselves into jams that I will have to help them fix. One or two are just instances of acting without thinking. Open question as to whether their stupidity will kill their companies. The market is pretty ruthless – it imposes capital punishment on a lot of companies every year. I may or may not be able to get the companies a reprieve.

In some other cases, an incompetent consultant gave the companies really bad advice. I wish I could go slap those consultants, but that’s not really an option. I’m just amazed that anyone can get paid for advice that bad. And now I have to clean it up.

Worst of all, I’m doing this instead of playing Magic. Sigh.

Cutting Edge Tech

Standard: Standard continues to evolve, but one deck – GB midrange – is holding the top spot. However, other decks exist. Here’s one that took second at the SCG Classic in Dallas. Remember when red decks ruled Standard? It may be happening again.

Note: all my prices come from the fine folks at MTGOTraders.com. These are retail prices, and generally the price of the lowest priced, actively traded version. (Prices for some rare promo versions are not updated when not in stock, so I skip those.) You can get these cards at MTGOTraders.com web store, or from their bots: MTGOTradersBot(#) (they have bots 1-10), CardCaddy and CardWareHouse, or sell cards to MTGOTradersBuyBot(#) (they have buybots 1-4). I have bought cards from MTGOTraders for over a decade now, and have never been overcharged or disappointed.

Standard Staples: Standard prices are mixed again this as the new metagame evolves. A few flukes have appeared. The Immortal Sun and Arclight Phoenix are showing up on streams. The metagame swings are driving a lot of volatility.

Standard Cards

Price

Last Week

Change

% Change

Arclight Phoenix

$11.75

$6.63

$5.12

77%

Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants

$8.26

$8.19

$0.07

1%

Assassin's Trophy

$8.76

$9.42

($0.66)

-7%

Carnage Tyrant

$24.35

$17.21

$7.14

41%

Doom Whisperer

$13.33

$14.92

($1.59)

-11%

History of Benalia

$14.02

$11.89

$2.13

18%

Jadelight Ranger

$9.70

$10.89

($1.19)

-11%

Karn, Scion of Urza

$13.61

$15.31

($1.70)

-11%

Lyra Dawnbringer

$7.64

$12.06

($4.42)

-37%

Nexus of Fate

$7.98

$9.03

($1.05)

-12%

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager

$13.41

$17.07

($3.66)

-21%

Rekindling Phoenix

$29.28

$28.03

$1.25

4%

Resplendent Angel

$7.71

$8.36

($0.65)

-8%

Sarkhan, Fireblood

$8.61

$6.88

$1.73

25%

Search for Azcanta

$5.03

$7.54

($2.51)

-33%

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

$32.15

$41.63

($9.48)

-23%

The Immortal Sun

$9.45

$3.08

$6.37

207%

Vivien Reid

$24.39

$24.04

$0.35

1%

Vraska, Golgari Queen

$7.49

$10.24

($2.75)

-27%

Vraska's Contempt

$6.16

$8.31

($2.15)

-26%

Modern staples: Modern prices are leveling off this week. Modern is still a really popular format, and you cannot play it on Arena.

Standard Legal Sets: This table tracks the cost of a single copy of every card in each Standard legal set, plus Treasure Chests and the current booster pack. I’ll keep tracking these because they are interesting (at least to me).

Complete Set

Price

Last Week

Change

% Change

Core Set 2019

$148.47

$153.35

($4.88)

-3%

Dominaria

$103.42

$120.12

($16.70)

-14%

Guilds of Ravnica

$110.51

$104.46

$6.05

6%

Ixalan

$98.96

$97.95

$1.01

1%

Rivals of Ixalan

$85.43

$81.75

$3.68

5%

Treasure Chest

$2.32

$2.32

$0.00

0%

Guilds of Ravnica Booster

$3.28

$3.28

$0.00

0%

The Good Stuff

The following is a list of all the non-promo, non-foil cards on MTGO that retail for more than $25 per card. These are the big ticket items in the world of MTGO. The list is pretty stable again this week. And a Black Lotus is way over $100, with Mox Sapphire a step behind.

Name

Set

Rarity

Price

Black Lotus

1E

Rare

$ 138.85

Mox Sapphire

1E

Rare

$ 85.15

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

A25

Mythic Rare

$ 62.62

Horizon Canopy

IMA

Rare

$ 58.21

True-Name Nemesis

PZ1

Mythic Rare

$ 58.05

Mox Ruby

1E

Rare

$ 56.29

Ancestral Recall

1E

Rare

$ 56.29

Mox Emerald

1E

Rare

$ 55.88

Horizon Canopy

EXP

Mythic Rare

$ 55.32

Mox Jet

1E

Rare

$ 51.59

Force of Will

MED

Rare

$ 51.10

True-Name Nemesis

C13

Rare

$ 50.66

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

WWK

Mythic Rare

$ 45.53

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

EMA

Mythic Rare

$ 42.28

Jace, the Mind Sculptor

VMA

Mythic Rare

$ 41.70

Liliana of the Veil

MM3

Mythic Rare

$ 40.31

Time Walk

1E

Rare

$ 40.17

Horizon Canopy

FUT

Rare

$ 38.41

Unmask

V16

Mythic Rare

$ 37.92

Mox Pearl

1E

Rare

$ 37.59

Mox Opal

MM2

Mythic Rare

$ 37.49

Mox Opal

SOM

Mythic Rare

$ 37.46

Mox Opal

MS2

Bonus

$ 37.20

City of Traitors

EX

Rare

$ 36.39

Dark Depths

V16

Mythic Rare

$ 35.03

Liliana of the Veil

ISD

Mythic Rare

$ 34.84

Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

DAR

Mythic Rare

$ 32.15

Surgical Extraction

NPH

Rare

$ 31.22

Surgical Extraction

MM2

Rare

$ 30.77

Ensnaring Bridge

7E

Rare

$ 29.29

Rekindling Phoenix

RIX

Mythic Rare

$ 29.28

Liliana, the Last Hope

EMN

Mythic Rare

$ 27.94

Wasteland

TPR

Rare

$ 27.63

Misdirection

MM

Rare

$ 27.15

Back to Basics

UZ

Rare

$ 25.77

Ensnaring Bridge

A25

Mythic Rare

$ 25.43

Engineered Explosives

MMA

Rare

$ 25.23

Ensnaring Bridge

ST

Rare

$ 25.15

Ensnaring Bridge

MS2

Bonus

$ 25.11

The big number is the retail price of a playset (4 copies) of every card available on MTGO. Assuming you bought the least expensive versions available, the cost of owning a playset of every card on MTGO is approximately $ 14,325. That’s down another thousand from last week.

In Closing

Vacations are great. The week before vacation is not – lots and lots of work to get ready. Plus a major crisis landing just before I was ready to go. The entirety of my Magic this week was listening to podcasts during my commute – and I was too distracted to pay attention.